Last week, former Solicitor General under the Bush Administration Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, his long-time colleague from the Solicitor General's office and in private practice, achieved perhaps the most significant victory at the Supreme Court under the Second Amendment in recent history.  The two successfully convinced the Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen to strike down New York's requirement that individuals must show "proper cause" before being able to obtain a concealed carry weapons permit. 

Yet after Clement and Murphy won at the Supreme Court in this historic decision, the two almost immediately resigned from Kirkland and Ellis, LLP, the world's top law firm in which both were partners.  While this may come as a surprise, strife between Kirkland and Ellis and the dynamic duo shows this decision was inevitable. 

In his resignation letter, Clement explained that the firm told him and Murphy that they needed to either drop out of existing representation of gun litigation clients or leave the firm. Clement and Murphy considered it wrong to drop their clients just because some of the legal establishment did not like the clients. In turn, the two [] resigned and announced they will start their own firm.

This afternoon, President Trump announced 20 additional distinguished attorneys and judges to the list of nominees he would consider for any future Supreme Court vacancy.  Polling showed that then-candidate Trump's list in 2016 was important to many voters who supported him, and he kept his promise of choosing off the list when he nominated Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Court.  Further, President Trump selected from his list for many of his highly qualified nominees to lower federal courts during his first term, providing unprecedented transparency regarding judicial nominations from a presidential candidate.

By contrast, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has not released a list, nor has he indicated that he will release one, leaving voters to wonder whom he would consider for any Supreme Court vacancy.  Would a President Biden choose off the troubling Demand Justice list or the secret Alliance for Justice list?  Both possibilities should terrify any American who values the rule of law.

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Rucho v. Common Cause, a partisan gerrymandering claim against North Carolina's congressional map, and Lamone v. Benisek, a First Amendment retaliation partisan gerrymandering claim against one Maryland state legislative district.  Both cases were before the Court last term and were sent back to the district courts for further proceedings.  As in the past, today the justices continued to search for a justiciably manageable standard for considering partisan gerrymandering claims: